2017 Digital Marketing Industry Report: A Sample

Purpose and Methods

Digital Marketing is still a relatively new industry. As it becomes more established and capable, it is prudent to identify the needs of a growing industry to ensure effective progress. Industry studies such as these attempt to outline the current landscape as defined by digital marketing executives and professionals and use their expertise to create forecasts regarding the trajectory of a digital agency and of the industry. The trajectory can be determined by identifying the current needs of companies at various stages of development and sizes. Gathering data from a wide variety of sources allows for observation of how digital marketing agencies grow and what slows or accelerates growth over a company’s lifespan. Determining the factors that slow growth assist in creating hypotheses around the needs of agencies. Additionally, collecting data regarding the future of the industry as perceived by currently practicing executives and professionals allows for the formulation of solutions for digital marketing agencies’ needs that incorporates new and more robust technology.

This study is based primarily on a survey distributed to digital marketing executives and professionals. The survey was constructed with the goal of learning various aspects of the industry such as problems associated with company growth, how agencies learn of innovation in their fields, future directions of the industry, and various others. Various characteristics of the participants’ agencies were recorded and were used during data analysis in the attempt to identify trends. Examples of characteristics of the respective agencies are number of employees and number of clients. In order to identify trends, the data was broken down according to these characteristics with the goal of observing how responses changed according to what group they fell in. As a guide to this analysis, statistical calculations were performed to identify relationships between characteristics and answers provided by participants and the significant results were examined in detail. The results of the analysis are the identification of needs that apply to the totality of the digital marketing industry as well as those applying to separate demographics of agencies in the industry.

Sample of the Results

The first question of the survey asked participants to identify what they believe limits their agency’s ability to grow.

Participants were also asked to expand on their choice for the previous question. The following word cloud was made from the responses.

The next question asked what participants considered to be essential tools for digital marketers.

Next participants were asked what information was necessary to be a successful digital marketer.

Next participants were asked what information was necessary to be a successful digital marketer.

Participants also offered the source of essential information.

Finally, participants offered their opinion of the future of the digital marketing industry.

Participants were also asked to expand on their choice for the previous question. The following word cloud was made from the responses.

If you would like to see all of the results produced by fellow marketing executives and professionals as well as the breakdown of all of this information, please click the button below to download the full report.

Roger is the Founder at Enfusen. He was #40 on Entrepreneur Magazines Most Influential Digital Marketers in 2016. His past companies have made INC Magazines Fastest Growing Companies in 2011, 2012, & 2013.